The Detroit River Tunnel Plan: What's Not to Like?
Privately funded expansion could double the capacity of the world's busiest border crossing.
The border crossing between Detroit and Windsor, Canada is the world's busiest international trade route. It may also be the world's most inefficient border crossing for commercial vehicles.
The aging Ambassador bridge (75 years old) handles 10,000 trucks a day, but not very well. Truckers from both sides must wait up to three hours to get on the bridge, which is their only means of crossing in the area. The only other freight crossing is a train tunnel under the river.
In these days of low factory inventories that count on just-in-time deliveries of parts and materials - to say nothing of security risks - it's a bottleneck that needs changing.
A plan to make that change would convert the existing train tunnel into a state-of-the-art commercial trade corridor. It would consist of a two-lane truck route and an adjacent high-clearance train tube built to accept newly designed intermodal auto carriers.
The project, called The Jobs Tunnel, would provide a direct corridor from Highway 401 on the Canadian side to I-75 on the Michigan side. Trucks on that route would be unhindered by traffic lights or automobile traffic.
It would, supporters say, double the Detroit-Windsor border crossing capacity, while improving traffic flow and safety on surface streets.
Existing rail yards would be converted into customs processing and clearance centers for trucks, with 14 inspection lanes on each side of the border. Tolls and clearances would be electronically processed.
Trucks would make the entire border crossing, from check-in to exit, enclosed in a fenced perimeter monitored by advanced surveillance equipment.
Sound too good to be true? There's more.
As outlined, it's going to be mostly privately funded, with no tax monies going to build or maintain it.
Its planner is the Detroit River Tunnel Partnership, the Canadian company that owns and operates the existing train tunnel. The company is equally owned by Canadian Pacific Railway—one of six North American Class I railways—and Borealis Transportation Infrastructure Trust, a subsidiary of the Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System. The latter reportedly has $34 billion in assets.
The partnership has completed preliminary design and engineering work, and is now involved in environmental impact studies. It says the project can be completed in five years from construction startup. Cost is estimated at $600 million Canadian.
Let's see now: We double the capacity of the world's biggest border crossing, speed up deliveries to everything from factories to retail business, make the highways safer for cars and trucks alike, clean up the environment for people living in the area—and private enterprise is going to pay for it.
Endorsements have come from Michigan's governor and congressmen, the United Auto Workers Union, the Teamsters, the National Assn. of Manufacturers and manufacturing companies on both sides of the border.
What's not to like?
Doug Condra
President
